No Happy Birthday to You, America! 🎇

One thing that surprised me about this year’s past celebration of America’s 250th birthday was how downscale the celebrations really were – both in the public and commercial parts of our country.

While I drove up to the Adirondacks on June 30th and then up to Old Forge on July 3rd, I did not see a single sign that said, “Happy Birthday America!” Some flags could be seen and maybe a mention of here or there of July 4th or Independence Day, but really no mention of how special this Independence Day really was – America’s 250th Birthday.

I went to a few different Walmarts, grocery stores, Tractor Supply and other places looking for inexpensive patriotic displays of flags and red-white-blue Christmas lights to hang up and display up at camp. Tractor Supply had $3 each mini flags, one of the three Walmart I visited had that ugly America 250 Flag with the swoopy 250 logo, along with some kitch like floppy Uncle Sam hats but no patriotic light strings, flags or banners. And certainly nothing cheap. Probably tarrifs!

Not being alive during the Bicentennial in 1976, I can only read about and see photos from the Bicentennial but it seems like that was a much more widely celebrated event. That was the year when many highways had permanent DOT signs that lasted for a year or longer with words like ‘Happy Birthday America”. Car dealerships really played up their Bicentennial models, an I’ m sure there was more kitsch and patrotic banners avaliable for that special holiday back during the Spirit of ’76.

Liberal states like New York probably weren’t feeling the spirt as much as conservative states, as President Trump turned the holiday into a partisan event, a narrow celebration mostly of our – somewhat neglected in modern history books – white founders. And primarily a celebration of himself, for being, well the elected President of the old U. S. of A. Still, America’s 250th birthday should have been a celebration for all.

I also understand that in the past 50 years there is a lot more public watchdogs thanks to easier access to information in databases over the internet, so the government at all levels may have been quite leery of throwing a big celebration for itself, the costs out there for all to inspect and criticize. The millions of dollars for permanent highway signs wishing America a Happy Birthday for it’s 250th would stick out like a sore thumb for the press, a contractor getting rich at taxpayer or motorist expense. Money spent on wishing America a special 250th could after all be spent on filling potholes or offering gas tax relief with gas prices still high. Don’t forget all that waste erecting permanent signs only expected to last a year. All that 3M reflective coating soon enough to be scrapped off and landfilled, and the distraction to passing motorists.

But I don’t know. I just wanted a bigger and better celebration of America’s 250th. Harkening back to an earlier era, but also celebrating America’s rich cultural diversity and how many different groups joined together to make our country the great nation that it is. Yet, that seemed impossible to do with Washington’s war on wokeness and DEI – concepts sometimes overused and abused – but also playing down the importance of a our diversity and the many stories that make up what truly makes America Great!